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Can you believe that the holiday season is almost here? I stumbled upon this festive infographic (courtesy of Monetate) that reminded me just how close we’re coming to the biggest shopping season of the year (for some retailers, these last few weeks of the year can represent more than half of their total annual revenue!) So the question is: are you prepared? Take a look below for lots of good holiday-specific information, including key shopping dates and tips for getting through this busy time of year.

(Click then zoom to enlarge)

Key takeaway points:

Half of all shoppers will spend more money online over Thanksgiving weekend than they will throughout the rest of the year. There you have it, this should be more than enough incentive to make sure your ecommerce site(s) and strategies are in perfect shape!

81% of shoppers prefer to shop online on Cyber Monday due to better deals. If you don’t offer Cyber Monday specials, you might want to jump on the band wagon this year. A huge percentage of shoppers are looking specifically for these deals, so why not take advantage of that?

Email is the most effective way to promote Cyber Monday deals. You may have some ridiculously awesome Cyber Monday deals, but no one is going to care if they don’t know about them. Promoting your specials is always a good idea, and it appears that email marketing is the way to go since 46% of Cyber Monday shoppers last year learned about deals from an email campaign.

Shoppers are more likely to research products on a smartphone, but more likely to purchase on a tablet or laptop. This cross-channel behavior is becoming the norm for shoppers. Now more than ever, you need to have a consistent multichannel strategy — your customers demand it!

55% of online holiday shoppers expect free shipping on every order. This is another concept you may have to adopt this year, if you haven’t already. Many retailers offer customers free shipping as an incentive to buy — choose the right shipping thresholds that match your holiday business goals.

Do you have any additional holiday retailing tips or advice? Don’t forget to leave them in the comment section below, or better yet join our Linkedin group!

Learn more how product information management can help you with your ecommerce initiatives in the white paper below!